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Burglar stole £100 as Barrow pensioner, 73, slept

A BURGLAR sneaked into an elderly woman’s house and stole her pension money while she was having an afternoon nap.

VICTIM Barbara Welch

Police are investigating the burglary at Barbara Welch’s terraced home where the thief took £100 from a purse in her bag.

The 73-year-old, who lives alone in Earle Street, Barrow Island, was sleeping in her living room bed when the culprit opened her front door and stole the cash. The grandmother of five is partially sighted and recovering from a heart attack she suffered earlier this year.

Due to arthritis and mobility problems, she does not get out much, but had the money set aside to pay towards going food shopping the next morning.

The widow, who also had a separate purse containing a Tesco points card stolen, said: “I was shocked and I was sad as well. It gives me an awful, uneasy feeling, which is why the door is locked now. The first thing I do now when I come in the house is lock my door.”

Mrs Welch suffered a mild heart attack at the end of June and spent four weeks in hospital in Blackpool. After being discharged, she later had a spell in FGH after she became anaemic and collapsed.

While she was a patient in FGH last month a separate sum of £80 was stolen from her home. It was only when she told her daughter to collect it, to put towards travel costs to her home in Lancashire, that Mrs Welch knew it had been stolen. There was no sign of any break-in.

The retired nurse, who worked at FGH and the former Stanley Street and Devonshire Road hospitals, has lived in Earle Street for seven years and had no problems.

Despite growing up in an era where household security was hardly a concern, her recent trials have prompted her to ensure her door is now always locked. She said: “When I was a kid there was nothing to pinch. There was five of us coming in at all hours of the day and the door was never locked until 11pm, which my dad was religious about because he’d say that no respectable person was out after that time.”

The sneak-in burglary happened on the afternoon of August 19. Anyone with any information is asked to contact police by calling 101.